Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Synth pop pioneers OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) -- best known in the States for "If You Leave," the pop smash from John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink -- are back with their classic lineup and History of Modern (out Sept. 28), the band's first album in 14 years, and first with their classic lineup in 24 years. Hear the album's leadoff track, "New Babies: New Toys," below!

The song, replete with a trademark, shimmering OMD synth hook, finds the older, wiser band musing on the current state of the music industry -- a fitting salvo as Track 1 on their comeback album. "Sold a dream but you got no joy," frontman Andy McCluskey coos in the chorus, "It's better with the girls but it's bigger with the boys."

"It's about the machinery of the music industry and all these willing volunteers who get themselves up on to X Factor and Pop Idol [England's version of American Idol] and have Simon Cowell inflict them upon us and upon themselves," McCluskey tells SPIN.com. "Particularly in England -- Simon Cowell is singlehandedly responsible for some of the most fucking awful music in the last 15 years that's been inflicted on the entire planet."

But while McCluskey has plenty of rage for the pop music scene, he's been able to mend fences within his own band to make this record possible, starting with the decision in 2005 to call up his original OMD cohort, keyboardist/vocalist Paul Humphreys, who quit the band in 1989, and see if he'd be into reforming the band for a TV gig they'd been offered.

"I don't even really know why, but finally I kind of cracked and phoned up Paul and the other guys and said, 'Listen, do you want to do a TV show in Germany?'" McCluskey recalls. "I think the general consensus was that we wanted to get away from our wives and children so we agreed to do it."

Everything felt just right from the start once the classic, early '80s lineup (which also includes multi-instrumentalist Martin Cooper and drummer Malcolm Holmes) got in a room together, McCluskey says: "The nearest thing I can equate it to was like riding a bicycle, you know? We'd spent so much time together -- 24/7 -- throughout the '80s that, even after 16 years of hardly seeing each other, back together again, it was like we'd never been apart. Except for the fact that now, we weren't sick to death of the sight of each other."

The band was also encouraged by the past decade's embrace of synth pop and electro. "It was nice to finally get some credit for what we trying to do all those years ago," McCluskey says. "Some of these people, who are young enough to be our kids, who have adopted some of the electro sounds and ideas -- we like them a lot."

And who specifically? "I think Robyn from Sweden has developed a very distinctive and personal style that is still very electronic," says McCluskey. "As you soon as you hear her singing, you know that's Robyn. And while I sometimes love her and sometimes hate her -- Lady Gaga. 'Pokerface' and 'Bad Romance' are fucking great electro songs."

Now, as History of Modern arrives, OMD are planning their first North American shows since 1991, with New York and Toronto emerging as candidates for gigs in early October. The band is also in talks to play next April's Coachella festival in California.And while OMD's return to the States conjures a few bad memories -- "Sometimes we joke that trying to break America ended up breaking us," McCluskey says, referring to the original lineup's implosion in the late '80s -- it's still a very happy time for OMD.

"It's quite wonderful at the age of 51, to be able to make a new record and be excited and proud of it," he gushes. "I'm lovin' it."

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

I just got a press release about this in my inbox...

OMD (aka Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) return with their first new album in 14 years. History of Modern will be released September 28th in the US via Bright Antenna Records through Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group. The US version of History of Modern contains the US only exclusive track, “Save Me,” which features Aretha Franklin and is the album’s first single. Spin.com has an exclusive interview with OMD’s Andy McCluskey along with the premiere of the new song “New Babies: New Toys.” Check it out HERE. Daily Motion just premiered the video for the first UK single, “If You Want It,” which is can be seen HERE.

Fans have the opportunity to pre-order History of Modern at OMD’s own webstore – WWW.OMD.HASAWEBSTORE.COM. They can choose between a limited edition box set and bundles including autographed vinyl, CD’s and exclusive t-shirt designs. All pre-orders come with an instant digital download of the single, “Save Me.”

One of the reasons OMD have called their brand new album – their eleventh – History of Modern is because they are acutely aware of what it is they’re doing with this release. On paper, this is the UK synth-pop pioneers’ first new material since 1996, but in spirit, History of Modern has more in common with the group’s early ’80s heyday, when Enola Gay and Souvenir, penned by two teenage Krautrock fans from the Wirral, lit up the charts and set the agenda for a bold new movement in British electronic music.

In tandem with the Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys, OMD’s tuneful blend of cutting-edge synthwork, cool minimalism and soulful pop – honed to perfection on the albums Architecture & Morality, Dazzle Ships and Organisation– defined the decade, sold millions of records, and turned childhood pals Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys into stars.

“We were trying to be modern,” says Andy, pointing out that, in 1980, OMD were one of the first acts to use a sampler. “After architecture, art and design, popular music was the last of the great modernist movements, and we were genuinely trying to do something new. Quite how we thought we were going to change the world with three-and-a-half-minute pop songs, I don’t know, but we thought we could.”

Fast forward 30 years to the reunited OMD of 2010 and it’s clear that that sense of mischief and youthful idealism still fuels the group. “I suppose the nice thing is that, just like in the early days, we made this record simply because we fancied making a record,” says Andy. “There was no pressure to make a record in order to sell records and sustain a career. It was like making a first album again.”

In these electro-friendly times, OMD’s influence has become ubiquitous. The XX, Brandon Flowers of The Killers, and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy have cited OMD as an inspiration, while the likes of La Roux, Cold Cave and The Horrors show traces of OMD’s DNA. Andy notes that today OMD is perceived to have its place in the “pantheon of relevant popular music history”, something which seemed unthinkable during the Britpop era, when ’60s revivalism finished off the last incarnation of OMD, a solo venture by Andy (Paul had left in 1989).

Fortunately, by anyone’s standards, History of Modern is an excellent album, one that fizzes with energy and captures the group’s newfound enthusiasm. Then again, between them, Andy and Paul have some 60 years of songwriting and music-making experience, so they do know their way around a hit. Propelled by synth riffs, ‘New Babies: New Toys’ and the two ‘History of Modern’ tracks are very much a return to form, while ‘RFWK’ doffs its cap to Kraftwerk, and ‘The Future, the Past, and Forever After’ has shades of OMD’s northwest contemporaries, New Order. Elsewhere, ‘Sister Marie Says’ echoes ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘Maid of Orleans’.

Upbeat and bristling with ideas, ‘History of Modern’ was mixed by Arctic Monkeys/Foals engineer Mike Crossey, and offers a slightly rawer kind of pleasure to the serene melancholy of OMD’s early-’80s moments. In a nice touch, the record’s sleeve was designed by Peter Saville, who was responsible for the iconic artwork of those first OMD albums. Saville was the in-house designer at Factory Records, the label that released OMD’s debut single, ‘Electricity’, in 1979. For many, ‘History of Modern’ will be their first experience of OMD, and one hopes their curiosity will lead them, via YouTube and Spotify, to ‘Organisation’, ‘Architecture and Morality’ and ‘Dazzle Ships’ – key works in the Synth Britannia canon.

The music industry OMD have returned to in 2010 is in a very different state to the one that helped them sell millions of records 20-odd years ago. But their attitude hasn’t changed. “Back then, we weren’t following anybody’s rules but our own,” Andy says. “Today, if you’re considered credible and you still have a relevance, then you’re allowed back on your pedestal. That’s what we’ve discovered to our great delight.

“And this record,” he adds, “is just another part of the jigsaw of us reclaiming our place in the broader picture.”

US Tracklisting:
1 New Babies: New Toys
2 If You Want It
3 History of Modern (Part I)
4 History of Modern (Part II)
5 Sometimes
6 RFWK
7 New Holy Ground
8 The Future, The Past, And Forever After
9 Sister Marie Says
10 Pulse
11 Green
12 Bondage of Fate
13 The Right Side
14 Save Me (featuring Aretha Franklin)

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Um holy crap.
They've been busy.
There's a new video and everything

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

crossineveryoceanforthesakeofLocomotion

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

I saw them in Paris in 2007 when they were performing their Architecture and Morality album in its entirety. Their stage show was incredible. Lots of visual effects and they sound better than in their early days. Most people don't know that although OMD produce pop songs, most of their sound is very experimental (or it was back in the 80s). Lots of new bands in the electronic resurgence have named OMD as a major influence. I hope this happens!

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Here ya go.
This track is CLASS.
Effortlessly like classic OMD...

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

The record is terrific and far better than I would have expected it to be.
Even ordered the vinyl, I was so keen.

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough

Re: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

This is a nice surprise.
So I pre-ordered the new record (vinyl) from their site.
It came with a free OMD shirt and was like $31 shipped.
So today it shows up and it's signed.
Too cool. I did not expect that.

"All of you coachella 'regulars' have nasty boy pussies and itchy dick4's on your asses.
Why don't you all make like a tree and get chopped down and die. You all have been dreadfully mean to me.
I Hate you. All of you. None of you will ever get to see a womans chest meat or finger blast hott cougies like me.
Fuck you all. Consider this my resignation.
Fair the well, you elitest scumbags."— Faxman75, who has clearly had enough